John Smedley’s newly-filed results for the 12 months to the end of March show the company dealing with “a particularly difficult year”.

What that meant in numbers was that sales in the 2024/25 year were down 5.23% having dipped just 0.52% in 2023/24. And gross profit was down 7% having fallen 9.7% in the previous year.

Looking at the figures in more detail, turnover dropped to £16.8 million from £17.7 million with gross profit down to £7.7 million from just under £8.3 million.

The company made an operating loss of £1.175 million compared to a loss on that basis of £71,000 in the previous year. And the loss before tax was £720,000, worse than the profit of £270,000 the year before. The net loss was £495,000, a negative swing from a profit of £134,000 in the prior year.

Clearly, the company’s assessment of the period as being difficult wasn’t an exaggeration. It said the long-tail effect of a period of high inflation and peaking interest rates in several of its most valuable markets cause consumers to prioritise necessary spend over discretionary spend, with a knock-on effect on its wholesale business.

A much weaker Japanese yen also forced additional price increases in that important export market, which weakened distributor buying power and led to a decline in the forward order book across both seasons.

And it also blamed the UK government’s Budget last autumn that hit sentiment very hard with the very significant increases that were announced for employers’ National Insurance, as well as the National Living Wage and business rates. The increases here came in as of this April and will likely impact the current trading year, although as we can see below it has taken actions to improve its results for this year.

The company said it has responded to these challenges by increasing its prices, which it hadn’t done for the previous three seasons. It has also restructured the business with redundancies, reduced the size of the range to cut stock risk and paused investments. As a result, for the future it’s planning for a profitable and cash-generative business.

John Smedley has also completed its project to replace its Wash & Dye house based on its Lea Mills site. This uses the best equipment currently available and significantly reduces its energy usage.

It has also been launching interesting collabs such as the one unveiled only last week with actor Bill Nighy.